The Babysitter
by MidnightIndigo
Summary: Anna Castle is a hide-and-seek champion, not to mention a human lie detector.  It could be the writer in her.  Or is it the cop?


**A/N: I've always wondered what happened to this kid. Just a little idea based off of episode 2x05 When The Bough Breaks. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. I don't even own Zane, who you probably recognize.**

Zane Talbot tiptoed into the pink bedroom. He saw the dust ruffle on the bed, slightly swept underneath. He grinned and knelt down, then pulled the fabric up quickly, with a loud, "Ha!"

There was nothing beneath the bed except a couple forgotten stuffed animals, a box of baby clothes, and a missing sock. No second-grade hide-and-seek professional. He wrinkled his nose and sat up, tossing his head to remove his dark hair from his eyes.

"Oly-oly-oxen-free?" he called hopefully.

"Not a chance!" the girl's muffled voice called from somewhere in the house.

He walked out into the hallway and stood at the top of the stairs. "I give up!" he yelled. "You win!"

No response.

"Come on, you win!"

The girl didn't betray her position by laughing or calling back.

Zane sighed and walked back into the kitchen. "I'm eating your stash!"

He heard a door slam and she ran out of the coat closet. He'd _known _that red coat was moving. "Don't you dare," she said from behind him, her hands outstretched in a finger gun held uncannily like an actual weapon would be held. "I told you about that in confidence."

She was probably the only second-grader he knew who used the phrase, 'in confidence', but that came from having a writer for a father. He supposed her attack strategy and perfect shooting stance came from the cop side of the family, however.

He put his hands up and turned around. "Okay, okay. Don't shoot, I surrender."

Anna grinned and dropped her hands. "What are we going to do now, then?" she asked, climbing onto a stool.

"I don't know, what do you want to do?"

She put her chin in her hands, leaning on the counter. "I don't know. Hey—can we have ice cream?" He tried very hard not to grin as she folded her hands, grinned hugely, and stretched out the word, "Please?"

"Fine, fine, fine. You know your parents will be home soon?"

"Do you think my dad will care?"

"I'm not worried about your dad."

"Mommy won't shoot you, don't worry."

Zane snorted and pulled the carton of cookies'n'cream out of the freezer. Anna got spoons as he retrieved the bowls from the cabinet she couldn't reach. As he dished it out and she watched from her regained perch, she added, "Mommy only shoots bad guys. You're a good guy. She likes the good guys. Although she does threaten Daddy sometimes when she's mad at him." Worried her mother's true nature might be held in some doubt by her babysitter, she finished with, "Mommy's nice."

Zane smiled and handed her the plastic red bowl and the color-changing spoon she liked. "I know your parents are nice. Wanna hear a story?" She nodded quickly. She always wanted to hear stories. "Okay. How much do you know about what your mom actually does?"

"I know she catches people who kill people."

"Very good. That's exactly what she does. There was once a little boy who was sick when he was born."

"What was the boy's name?"

He looked at his enthusiastic charge. "His name was Matt. The boy's father knew that that boy would die, and he was a doctor at the hospital, so he switched his baby with another healthy baby. So he took that baby home and named it…Bob, and another family took home the sick baby, Matt. Matt died when he was three." Anna's face fell slightly, but he smiled comfortingly at her over the counter. "When…Bob…was seven, his real mom realized that he was her son, but she was killed before she could tell Bob's parents. Your parents investigated the case and found out about this and realized that Bob's fake dad had killed his real mom to silence her. After the case was over, your parents helped Bob's real dad get in touch with him, and Bob was able to know who his dad was. And his fake dad went to jail as he should have, because he was a bad person. But he stayed with his mom and got to know his real dad, so Bob was happy."

Anna brightened, her mouth full of ice cream as she asked, "And now he works for my parents as my babysitter?"

He glanced at her, startled. "What do you mean?"

"Aren't you Bob?"

"No, I'm Zane, silly." He cleared their bowls, rinsing them out and putting them in the dishwasher. "What now, kid?" he asked. She wrinkled her nose but grinned toothily at the nickname, multiple baby teeth missing from her smile.

"Let's watch a movie!" she exclaimed.

"What movie?"

"Umm…" She leapt up, running to the cabinet of cases, and pulled one out of her father's collection. "This one!"

Zane took it and raised an eyebrow. "You sure? Are you allowed to watch this? I don't even know if I'm allowed to watch this." It was a lie, and Anna knew it.

"You're eighteen, you can watch anything," Anna said. "If you're eighteen you can do whatever you want."

"I don't know about _anything_, but I guess." He turned on the TV and the Blue-Ray player and put in the original King Kong. Zane sat down on the couch and she crawled into his lap. It was getting pretty late, and Anna was evidently tired; within a few minutes she was asleep with her thumb in her mouth. Though Zane doubted she would've, he was kind of glad she hadn't seen most of the movie in case she got nightmares. He had no idea how much of it she'd seen.

After half an hour of the black and white of the screen illuminating the room, he heard the lock turn and the door opened, and Anna's parents entered.

"Hey, Zane," Rick called. "She asleep?"

Zane nodded. "She, um, wanted to watch King Kong, I didn't know if she was allowed, but she fell asleep in, like, the first ten minutes. I hope it's not-"

"Oh, yeah, she's watched that every day for the past two weeks," Kate snorted. Rick hung both of their coats in the closet while she walked over and knelt beside the couch, smoothing Anna's dark auburn hair back. "Hey, baby, we're home," she said softly. Anna rubbed her eyes with her free hand.

"Hi, Mommy," she said sleepily.

"Did you have fun with Zane?"

Anna nodded. "We played hide-and-seek."

"She won," Zane grinned. "She's the hide-and-seek champ."

"Congrats, Anna," Rick said, leaning over the couch. "I've taught you well, young grasshopper." She smiled up at him and yawned. "You tired, sweet pea?"

She nodded and extended her arms. He picked her up off Zane's lap and carried her upstairs to go to bed. She called over his shoulder, "Bye, Zane."

"Bye, Anna," he replied, waving. She waved back, watching him with her blue eyes and her thumb still in her mouth until she'd disappeared from view.

"How was she?" Kate asked, retrieving some money from her purse to pay him.

"Good, as always," Zane answered with a grin. "How was dinner?"

"It was great, thanks, Zane. Sorry we were late, there were some delays in midtown."

"It's fine, of course. But, um, I did tell her a story…about how you met me? I didn't tell her it was me, but think she sort of knew, so…"

"You changed your name in the story? I know she wouldn't let you get away without saying the name." He nodded. "What name did you use?" she asked.

"Um, Bob."

"Well, there's your problem," she laughed. "Never ever use the name Bob."

"Why?" Zane asked curiously.

"She's a writer's daughter," Kate snorted. "Trust me, she'll know."

"She's also a cop's daughter," he pointed out.

"And she knows how to spot a phony cover story a mile away," she grinned. He considered this and nodded.

"You can get home safely?" Rick asked, coming down the stairs. He must've already put her to bed. "You didn't take the subway, did you? I wouldn't want you riding it this late."

"No, I drove. I'll be careful," he promised.

"Good, or your mother will be out for blood," Kate joked.

Rick raised his hand. "Probably mine."

Zane and Kate laughed as they walked him to the door. "Thanks for being so great with Anna, she loves you," Kate said. "She always goes on and on about having Zane come and babysit again. I think she might have a crush on you."

"It's no problem, Anna's great," he grinned. "If you need me, don't forget to call, even if it's last minute."

"Of course. Rick, you want to walk him to the car?"

"Right."

"Bye, Zane."

"See you, Mrs. Castle."

Kate went to shut off the TV and put away the King Kong disc. By the time Rick had returned she had started the dishwasher, which Zane had graciously filled, and turned off most of the lights. "Are you coming up?" she asked as he headed to his office, which was lit only by moonlight.

"Yeah—I have to write, but I'll bring my laptop upstairs."

She changed into sweatpants as he entered with the computer, sitting down beside her and starting to type. "How am I supposed to sleep with you making all that noise?" she asked, smirking slightly.

"You don't have to sleep," he grinned at her. She rolled her eyes, putting her hair up and looking over his shoulder. "I don't see why you can't wait until I'm done to read it."

She shrugged. "Something to do. Besides, the muse should know what she's inspiring, shouldn't she?" As he wrote she leaned back against the pillows. "Zane's a nice kid, isn't he?"

Rick nodded. "I'm glad he turned out alright. I was worried a little—his whole situation. It's good that someone can move past that."

"You never really move past that," Kate corrected. "You just learn to live with it. Must be why he's so good with kids though."

Again, he nodded, this time looking over at her with a grin. "It's always nice to find babysitters through homicide."

**A/N: Hope you liked it! Don't forget to let me know what you thought.**


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